The Film Daily (1918)

Sunday, September 29, 1918 jsliM DAILY Lacks Sincerity and Dignity Due Subject Involved. Watch Your Step William Fox's "WHY AMERICA WILL WIN" Fox Special DIRECTOR Richard Stanton AUTHOR Adrian Johnson CAMERAMAN H. Cronjager AS A WHOLE Lacks dignity due subject involved; boastful to a degree that may be resented by our Allies and is very questionable as sincere and effective propaganda. STORY Alleged true life history of General Per= shing with prophetic finish showing the Gen= eral's army capturing Berlin with America claiming the entire credit for winning of war. DIRECTION Failed to make characters and ac= tion ring true and generally lacked dignified touch commensurate with subject covered. Didn't make it convincing. PHOTOGRAPHY Generally ordinary except minia= ture stuff, which was well done. LIGHTINGS Varied from good to fair; night battle stuff very good. CAST None of them a credit to the characters im= personated and comic opera Roosevelt awful. EXTERIORS Satisfactory except exteriors with painted backings which were painfully crude. INTERIORS Acceptable DETAIL Several bad slips and jarring incidents CHARACTER OF STORY An insult to the intelli= gence of thinking Americans. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 6.060 feet WITH practically every producer in the industry rushing out war films in an effort to cash in on the spirit of the times, it isn't strange that we've had an alarming number of poor ones but this latest one of Fox's has not only the appearance of being cheaply constructed and hastily thrown together but is very questionable to me in its patriotic appeal, to say nothing: of tbe very unfavorable light it places America in in the estimation of our Allies It looks to me like very poor business from any angle. This starts out as the autobiography of General Pershing, played by four different characters to portray the various periods of his youth and early manhood. Since this film eulogizes our General in no uncertain terms. the authorization of its production must have received his sanction but I am wondering how he will receive the offering when he eventually sees it, especially when the scenes wherein his wife and children perish in a fire are revived in his memory via the screen with an actress portraying the role of the wife whom his memory holds sacred. The film also conveys the impression that his house was burned by German agents, which is certainly interesting, if true, as this happened before our entrance to the war. while the General was on the Mexican border. This mixture of fact and fiction kills the sincerity of the offering, in my estimation. I am sure there will be considerable resentment caused by the roles of Col. Roosevelt, President Wilson, Secretary of War Baker and General Pershing being represented by actors who fail utterly to do credit to the characterizations and the comic opera "Teddy," who appears in this certainly impresses more as a caricature than the real man. Despite these jarring notes, the production up to the point where history leaves off and fiction commences might get by, although it certainly fails to impress forcibly. The false note of it all lies in the prophetic finish which fails to give any mention or credit to our Allies and shows General Pershing and the American army capturing Berlin, killing the Crown Prince (the Kaiser is killed by lightning) and giving America the entire credit for winning the war. The destruction of Berlin was shown in miniature, which was rather well done, and then they had General Pershing marching triumphantly into the palace under the crossed swords of two lines of American soldiers. This entrance looked like the Kaiser had planned it, it certainly didn't register as the American way of doing things. They had General Pershing telling the Kaiser a few things in a series of lengthy titles which made it appear that our leader had prepared a speech for the occasion. And. of course, they showed the American flag being raised over the palace at Berlin for a finale. It is absurd to assume that America, even though she is instrumental in winning this war, can claim all of the credit for the victory. I'm sure that sincere, thinking Americans will resent the way this has been handled and as many of our Allies are going to see this film if seems to me that we are inviting trouble to let productions of this nature gain circulation. /■VP.D.A. "ScatufoT *%ev$@etAWtvorc& myw directing ^for Ooldwtft 'n^